WIFM (What's in it for me) is an exclusive, quarterly, bilingual lifestyle magazine offering readers a balanced coverage of business, lifestyle and key happenings in Tokyo along with our own recommendations to explore new opportunities in this great city.

The transport industry
has long endured harsh
criticism over the
pollutants it expels into
the atmosphere. Studies
have put carbon dioxide emissions from
transport at 20% of the total in Japan—
and far higher in developing countries,
which have softer emission rules.

But that must be balanced against
mankind’s fundamental and increasing
need to travel and to transport goods.
Fortunately, there are companies
and organizations that realized some
years ago that the world was headed
for environmental implosion and
which made efforts to haul us back
from the brink.

“The world has become more ecofriendly
and environmentally sensitive
to the point that people look for products
and services that tie in as a statement
of their values,” said Kiyotaka Fujii,
president of Better Place Japan and
head of business development for the
Asia Pacific region.

And while Japan’s innovative
automakers have devoted plenty of
effort and resources to “green” cars—
and made remarkable progress—the
basic technical problem of producing
a battery that is sufficiently cheap and
able to propel a car over a reasonable
range has held back the mass adoption
of electric vehicles (EV).

“We have been advocating electric
vehicles being available en masse,
because if it’s just city buses, post vans or
government vehicles, it will not be effective
in reducing emissions,” said Fujii. “There
has to be mass adoption of EVs.”

That means overcoming the
obstacle of price—an EV costs around
¥3 million, with the battery alone
accounting for one-third the cost—
and users suffer from “range anxiety,”
a fear of stopping after the 100km
range of the power source.

So Better Place has a revolutionary
approach.

Founded in the U.S. in 2007, the
company’s model meets the three
key requirements of a zero-emissions
vehicle by providing charging spots,
battery switching stations, and the
software required to automate the
process.

Perhaps the king of them all is Hisao Maegaki.
Charging spots keep batteries topped
up with power so they constantly have
the energy to travel 100kms. They
can be beside your office parking spot,
outside retailers, and at home. Just plug
in the car.

For journeys over 100kms, batteryswitching
stations will be constructed
along roads. The changeover will be
completely automated and drivers
won’t have to leave their vehicle.

As most EVs will be recharged during
the evening at home, energy from
renewable sources—such as solar
power or wind energy—will be used to
top up.
The system was operated on a testbasis
in Yokohama earlier this year
and Israel is the first country to fully
embrace the technology.

Another transport sector looking to
change how it operates to protect the
environment is the airline business,
which remains a net polluter but is
on the cusp of exciting changes,
according to Paul Sands, general
manager of the Japan office for Virgin
Atlantic Airways.
“Airlines have not done so badly
in the area of contributing to the
economy—we contribute 8% of global
GDP and provide 29 million jobs around
the world—while in the social area we
bring people together and increase
cultural understanding,” he said. “But in
the area of the environment, there is a
gap which we are aiming to close.”

The IATA (International Air Transport
Association) has set a target to cut half
of emissions by 2050 and the industry
is trying to alter the perception that
aviation produces far more emissions
than it actually does. A UK study
showed that the public believes the
airline industry produces as much as
80% of all emissions, but that figure is
actually just 3.5-5%.
Virgin is reducing its footprint
even further, said Sands. One step
is to become as efficient as possible,
meaning everything from buying the
most efficient jets for the fleet—such as
the new Boeing Dreamliner, which burns
25% less fuel than its predecessor—to
offloading empty bottles before take-off
and reducing by a fraction the energy
to transport them.

Staff and passengers are helping the
airline meet its targets and Virgin only
serves tea and coffee bought from fartrade
schemes, while paper towels in
the company’s HQ have been replaced
by efficient electric hand driers.
But Sands believes the biggest
benefits are likely to result from
research to develop biofuels in the
near future.

“Virgin was the first airline in the
world to fly a commercial plane partly powered by biofuel, just to prove
that it could be done,” he said. “There
were concerns that it would freeze at
altitude, clog up engines, but we flew
from London to Amsterdam with one of
four engines on a biofuel derived from
coconuts and babassu nuts and it went
very well.”

Clearly much work needs to be done
to perfect a new aviation fuel from
renewable sources, he said. “Alternative
fuels have to be the long-term solution
and while we have not found that yet,
we have certainly set the ball rolling.”
Other speakers addressed issues
involving environment-friendly designs
and buildings. Speakers focused
on developments in conventional
automobile technology and emphasized
that several technologies—electricity,
hybrid and even hydrogen—are likely
to co-exist in the future.

But it was Hiroshi Nakada, a former
Yokohama mayor, who demonstrated
that with sufficient will, the ambition of
a more sustainable future is possible.
Nakada was mayor for more than seven
years from April 2002, reducing the
city’s debt by ¥1 trillion. But his biggest
legacy is, arguably, reducing the amount
of trash Yokohama residents produce
and reducing the effort and energy
required to remove and process it.
“I noticed right away that people place
too much emphasis on convenience and
we had a huge electricity bill at city hall
because we had the air conditioning
going all the time,” he said. “I started
the ‘Cool Biz’ campaign and by wearing
more appropriate clothing we could all
stay more cool.”

Another key initiative, which overcame
staunch opposition and skepticism from
the bureaucrats, was separating trash
before collection. Fifteen individual waste
groups were identified—including bottles
(glass and PET), cans, newspapers and
cardboard—and a two-year program
was begun to educate the 3.65 million
residents.

Despite the misgivings, the project
exceeded its target of a 30% reduction
in waste in the first year.
“People want to do this, but they can’t
always see the end results,” he said.
“When they are encouraged to take part,
they become smarter shoppers; they
buy shampoo refills instead of a whole
new bottle, and they are encouraged to
use their minds.

“Yokohama’s citizens have seen
the importance of the way in which
they live their lives,” he said. “This
system of waste disposal has become
institutionalized now. Only people
can help our society and resolve our
problems.” ❖